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Thursday, January 23, 2014

Between My Place and My Home

I’m writing this post in the living room of our house in Malaysia. That means a lot of things: the exams are over, the holidays are here, a stable internet connection is available, I have finished my chores (or I am running away from doing any more), and I am not too sleepy to go back to sleep after breakfast. I’m sorry that I have started this post with unimportant reports but I really want to write a post and keep this blog alive but I don’t know why I can’t write any good-sounding sentences (goods-sounding… what a pathetic attempt at providing an acceptable adjective phrase). Nevertheless, I am as sarcastic and cynical as ever,and that is enough to keep me going and look away from my current incompetency in producing words.

Anyway, below is another attempt to provide people with a reasonable reference for making articles. It is a “comparison and contrast” type of article. Again, I had to choose a topic from a given list and again I chose something that would free me from too much research (*wicked laugh*). Well, I sure hope it helps!

Between My Place and My Home

Every person growing up has to leave the nest at one point in their life. Their independence needs to be tested by letting them seek a temporary nest of their own and learn to manage it. That is what happened to me. In order to chase my dreams, I had to leave home a few years ago as I finally “came of age”. Currently, I am still studying at a university, going back and forth from school to work, and finally going back to my place in the evenings. My place, which is actually a house I am renting, is certainly different from my house back in my hometown, where my family is.

For one thing, food is not always available at my place. I might have a snack or two somewhere in my cupboard and a can of soft drink in the fridge, but that’s it. I have to buy a larger meal before I go home if I don’t want to go to sleep hungry. In contrast, at home, food is always available on the dinner table and in the fridge. Mom loves to cook. At the least, she always makes sure her family eats three meals a day and she does this by cooking morning until noon. My brothers and sisters and I wake up to the smell of a delicious breakfast being prepared. However, in my current domicile, my alarm clock is the only thing that greets me when I wake up. I rarely eat breakfast there because I don’t have time to prepare it. Therefore, I don’t stock up on ingredients for cooking. The best I can do is boil water for instant oatmeal.

Secondly, I try to keep my place clean, but it is not always so. I sweep the floor every day, do my laundry, and wash the dishes, but that is the most I can do on a daily basis. I clean the bathroom and mop the floor almost every week. However, when I am especially busy, bigger chores are neglected. Therefore, it isn’t always a comfortable place to be in. On the other hand, our house back at our hometown is always clean. My parents are very strict about cleanliness. The floors are swept and mopped almost every day. The bathroom is never dirty. Even the furniture is dusted and polished regularly. Everything is fresh and pleasant.

Lastly, my current residence lacks the warmth my home has. It is a facility which suits its purpose: a place to study and a place to rest after a long day (read: sleep). Other than that, it is just an empty structure on a tiny patch of earth. It is a very quiet place and often deserted since no other human is living there except for me and my brother – and we are rarely at home. In contrast, home is always bustling with everyone’s daily activities. Mom is cooking, Dad is tending the garden, my little brother is playing with his toys, my sister is putting on her make up, and I am usually watching TV (maybe that doesn’t count as busy). It is a busy environment and sometimes it is too noisy to study. However, it is warm and wonderful. I guess that is why it is called home.

In conclusion, living in a rented house is far from pleasant, if you compare it to home. Home is full of the pleasures many people take for granted. However, the purpose of going away from the nest is to leave the comfort zone. It may be a harsher environment, but it trains our wings to fly and finally reach the zone of independence.